There were five major cities belonging to the Philistines, and four of them are mentioned here as deserving the LORD’s punishment. The fifth one, Gath, had already been destroyed by the Assyrian king Sargon II in 711 B.C. The four cities may be located on the map “The United Israelite Kingdom” in Good News Translation.

There is a play on the sounds in Hebrew between the name ʿazzah Gaza and the word ʿazubah deserted. This kind of wordplay was quite common in Hebrew in solemn situations (see especially Micah 1.10-16), but it would not be appropriate in English even if it could be copied. It will rarely be possible for other languages to copy such wordplays, and translators should not attempt to do so unless it is a common custom in their language. Deserted means “not having any inhabitants,” and this is put in simple terms in Good News Translation as “No one will be left in the city of Gaza.” Since Gaza is not one of the best known place names in scripture, Good News Translation identifies it as a “city,” and many translators will do well to include a similar descriptive word.

Ashkelon shall become a desolation is a statement parallel in meaning to the statement about Gaza. Good News Translation expresses it more naturally as “Ashkelon will be deserted.” If repetition is not good style in the receptor language, the translator may prefer to put these two sentences into one and say “There will be no people left in the cities of Gaza and Ashkelon” or “The cities of Gaza and Ashkelon will be empty of people (or, have no people remaining).”

The third city mentioned is Ashdod. The Hebrew says literally that its people shall be driven out at noon. This has two possible meanings, one of which is given in the Good News Translation text and the other in the footnote. Noon was the hottest time of day, when people were resting, so “a surprise attack at noontime” (Good News Translation footnote) would be likely to catch them unprepared and lead to a quick defeat. The other meaning is that the attack on the city will be over by noon. This is the more probable meaning and has some parallels in archaeological inscriptions. It is expressed in the Good News Translation text as “The people of Ashdod will be driven out in half a day.” At noon (Good News Translation “in half a day”) may be expressed in certain languages as “before the sun reaches its highest point.”

Ekron shall be uprooted: again there is a similarity of sound in Hebrew between Ekron and the verb uprooted. Since the fourth statement is parallel in meaning to the third, uprooted refers to the people rather than the buildings. Thus Good News Translation translates “the people of Ekron will be driven from their city.” In languages which do not use the passive, one may express this sentence as “Their enemies will drive out the people of Ashdod in half a day, and force the people of Ekron to leave their city.”

The four cities are mentioned in geographical order from south to north. This may perhaps reflect attacks by the Scythian cavalry as they swept northward along the coastal plain on their withdrawal from Egypt.

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on the Book of Zephaniah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .